United States Successfully Tests Nuclear-Capable Hypersonic Missile Prototype

In a major development, the United States (US) announced on Friday (20 March) that it has successfully tested an unarmed prototype of a hypersonic missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads, reports Economic Times.

Pentagon revealed that the test glide vehicle flew at five times the speed of sound, or Mach 5, to hit the designated impact point. It also said that delivering hypersonic weapons is one of the highest technical research and engineering priorities for the Department of Defence.

It should be noted that the US has already made public its goal to have a deploy-able hypersonic missile capability by 2023. In this pursuit, the US' Department of Defence had demanded $2.6 billion in the ongoing fiscal, while also having requested for a higher allocation of $3.2 billion in the next fiscal.

Hypersonic missile can traverse much faster than nuclear-capable ballistic, cruise and other conventional missiles. These can also change the direction whilst in flight, making them tougher to track and interpret.